I'd pay $1,000 for a 1Ds MkIII firmware upgrade that gave me full RT speedlite control, I don't give a damn about a 200-400 that won't be on the shelf for me to look at for another year.

I'd buy six more 600-EX-RT's if I had the 2012 body functionality.

Logged

Too often we lose sight of the fact that photography is about capturing light, if we have the ability to take control of that light then we grow exponentially as photographers. More often than not the image is not about lens speed, sensor size, MP's or AF, it is about the light.

This tells me that if they can do it (f/8 AF) for these older, discontinued bodies, they can certainly do it for the 6D. The question is "will they?"

Sorry, it tells you nothing. The 1DIV and 1DsIII could already AF with the center point with an f/8 combo (600/4 + 2x, 400/5.6 + 1.4x, etc.). But presumably, they would not do so with the new 200-400/4+1.4x with a 1.4x TC behind it, so the firmware update is needed to make this new f/8 combo behave like all the other f/8 combos.

But are not available yet for Macshows like for Windows users only, and also giving me 404 errors

That got me very excited, but alas...there is no update posted for Windows either. Either the article is just wrong or Canon pulled it. Did you actually see an update posted at some point?

It irritates the snot out of me that this fix has been available for the 5D3 for more than a month now, but still isn't published for the higher end model. Meanwhile Canon seems to be focused on new lens sales more than fixing performance issues in their flagship photo DSLR.

It irritates the snot out of me that this fix has been available for the 5D3 for more than a month now, but still isn't published for the higher end model. Meanwhile Canon seems to be focused on new lens sales more than fixing performance issues in their flagship photo DSLR.

In fairness, they said 'late May' for the 1D X update, and the month isn't (quite) over yet. The 1D X got f/8 AF 6 months before the 5DIII, and the 5DIII apparently isn't getting the AI Servo AF point illumination fix, ever.

I suspect what happened in this case is that Canon had pre-announced the April 5DIII update for f/8 AF and clean HDMI out, and it made sense to roll the AF Assist update into that release.

Are people really going to use an external 1.4 extender IN ADDITION to the built in 1.4 extender?

I'm sure some people will, yes. I wonder about the IQ, though. Worth noting that there are two ways to get to 800mm f/8 with the 200-400 lens - built in 1.4x and a 1.4x behind, or disengage the built in 1.4x and put a 2x on the back. I presume the latter does not require a firmware update to AF on 1-series bodies. I'm sure TDP will test both combinations, but if I had to guess, I'd bet that the 2x without the built in 1.4x would deliver better IQ than two 1.4x TCs in the optical path.

But are not available yet for Macshows like for Windows users only, and also giving me 404 errors

That got me very excited, but alas...there is no update posted for Windows either. Either the article is just wrong or Canon pulled it. Did you actually see an update posted at some point?

It irritates the snot out of me that this fix has been available for the 5D3 for more than a month now, but still isn't published for the higher end model. Meanwhile Canon seems to be focused on new lens sales more than fixing performance issues in their flagship photo DSLR.

This tells me that if they can do it (f/8 AF) for these older, discontinued bodies, they can certainly do it for the 6D. The question is "will they?"

Sorry, it tells you nothing. The 1DIV and 1DsIII could already AF with the center point with an f/8 combo (600/4 + 2x, 400/5.6 + 1.4x, etc.). But presumably, they would not do so with the new 200-400/4+1.4x with a 1.4x TC behind it, so the firmware update is needed to make this new f/8 combo behave like all the other f/8 combos.